Fairy Tales
by Mercy'sTears
Summary: She can hardly believe it's come down to this...


Well I found this on my computer and I wrote it a couple years ago. I was going to delete but I though at least one person might enjoy it. Hmm…guess I'll find out.

* * *

From the age of three, we are read wonderful, magical stories called fairy tales. An attempt to speed up a child's growth and intelligence is sometimes the cause. Other parents do it out of habit. The stories are a little bit of the past they are trying to pass on.

The only fault with fairy tales is that they instill false hopes in the world.

Let's be realistic, can someone really not notice that a wolf is in a bed in place of their own grandmother? If a hare and a tortoise were to actually have a race why would the hare stop in the middle of the race to rest and not just wait until he finished to sleep? And if Cinderella actually got to the ball and she did dance with the Prince, well good for her, but when her slipper fell off and the Prince tried it on others feet…honestly, it didn't fit anyone else's foot? In real life, someone else would have gotten her prince.

If you haven't noticed I don't have an issue with the magical side of these stories. Well, you can't go to Hogwarts without realizing that some of these things are completely possible. Cinderella for instance. Her pumpkin turning into a carriage? Well that would be a little bit of Transfiguration. A bit advanced, but nonetheless still possible. The mouse turning into a driver could be a potion of sorts. And…well you get the idea. The magical stuff is all possible.

I just lack faith in mankind I guess. But I deserve to lose that faith. I have seen horrible things. People being tortured and dying. Traitors showing their true colours. And therein lays the problem. These issues never happen in fairy tales. There aren't loves for everyone. And if you are lucky enough to find that special person…they can't always save you. Most importantly though, there aren't always happening endings.

I know from experience.

The air was uncharacteristically cold, even for January. The snow from several days ago was still thick and crunched under my feet. I hardly noticed any of this though. I was to busy trying to hear someone. Anyone. I was unsuccessful…there just wasn't anyone left to hear.

I opened my eyes, having closed them so I wouldn't have to see what caused my lack of faith in man. Surrounding me were bodies. Dead bodies. All scattered unceremoniously across the front of the Hogwarts grounds. My eyes went out of focus as I turned slowly in a circle. With my eyes glazed I couldn't tell the difference between the aurors, death eaters, teachers, and students.

Suddenly a sharp pain shot through my right arm and pulled me from my thoughts. I clasped it and at the same time realized I just lost what little was left of my life. It was strange. I didn't feel any different. The pain didn't suddenly overwhelm me. The logical part of my brain deduced that I was probably in shock. The pain would come soon enough.

Well, I was all by myself in front of Hogwarts. I was quickly going through options in my mind. I could try to make a run for it but I had no where to go. If I waited in front of Hogwarts a Death Eater would surely find me. Or I could…well I still had my wand. I could just end it. End everything. Merlin, it was never suppose to come to this. No fairy tale ever ended this way.

I heard a pop behind me that I instantly recognized as someone Apparating behind me. I didn't even turn around. If whoever it was wanted to kill me, well then they could save me the dishonor of doing it myself.

"Hermione?"

My eyes widened in surprise and I spun around. Dumbledore's spell must have worked wrong! There was still someone left!

As my eyes settled on him I felt my jaw drop. Oh yes, there was someone left. The one and only Draco Malfoy. Head Boy of my class, second-rate seeker to Harry, salutatorian behind me, and youngest person to ever be inducted into Voldemort's inner circle. Funny what thing he chooses to be first in.

"Hermione?" he asks again.

My name was enough to shake me out of my reverie.

"No no no no no." was all I managed to get out.

"What?"

"No you don't call me Hermione out here. Or in there." I said as I pointed to Hogwarts. "As a matter of fact, you don't call me Hermione ever again. It's Granger and Malfoy."

His face remained emotionless. "Fine. So what are you doing out here?"

"You've got to be joking! Well let's see, today I decided it would be fun to see everyone I love and know to be tortured and killed. I avoided the whole mess of course because I knew the Great Malfoy would be coming later to have a pleasant conversation with me. And here I am."

"You can't know that everyone is gone."

"Really? Well Dumbledore found a way around that one. He connected everyone in the Order and, well frankly whoever else we wanted by our minds. Sort of like an alert system. And for the last several hours, my bit of the alert system has slowly been disappearing."

"Well it could be a mistake," he said nonchalantly.

"Is this honestly a joke for you? All of it?"

"I'm just pointing out flaws in your thinking. For instance the Dark Lord could be blocking whatever alert thing Dumbledore did."

"Everyone is gone." I insisted. "Think about it. Who would Voldemort want to hurt most of all. Harry. He would have Harry suffer and make sure the last things he saw were the people who hurt him."

"Well maybe Pothead isn't dead. Flaws Granger. Flaws."

I pulled up the sleeve on my right arm and pointed at two identical scars. One thin line each. "This is how I know."

He reached to trace the lines but I slapped his hand away.

"What are those?"

"Me, Harry, and Ron all wanted to make sure something like this didn't happen. We used blood magic. Bound us together in a way. If something happened to one of us, the other two would feel it. I felt it. I felt them die. Just like you would feel if Voldemort died. But it was good magic. I swear it."

"Stop saying his name!" he hissed back. "And that wasn't good magic. Good magic doesn't leave scars like that."

"It was too."

"No, it wasn't." He decided to change topics but I didn't object. It wasn't a good time for an argument. "Why did you just tell me all of that?"

"Because I have a favor to ask you, Malfoy."

"What then _Granger?_" he said putting the emphasis on my last name.

"I need you to kill me."

He began to laugh. Then he looked at my face.

"No. Not going to do it Hermione."

"Granger I said. You call me Granger."

"Fine Granger," he said exasperated, "No I will not kill you."

"Why not? You killed so many people today. I watched you do it" I cried. The shock was beginning to wear off a bit. I clenched my hand.

"Because you're just upset right now."

"I'm not upset. I'm going to get upset very soon." The hand unclenched. "I need you to kill me!" Clench.

"Bloody Hell! I told you no!"

Fine, I thought as I took out my wand, I can take care of this myself. I raised my hand and pointed the wand to my chest. As I opened my mouth to perform the Unforgivable the wand was pulled out of my grasp.

"Damnit! This is getting ridiculous. Why would you kill yourself?"

"We've been over this before Malfoy. Everyone's dead. Everyone's dead." I continued to repeat it in a sing-song voice. Merlin, I was starting to lose it.

I clearly wasn't the only one.

"Her-I mean Granger I think you've gone a bit mad."

"If I say I have will you kill me?"

"Yes, you've definitely lost it. Come back to the Manor with me."

Well so much for the crazy tactic. Now I had an invitation back to his home. I saw some fireworks over Malfoy's head and had another idea.

"All right. You caught me. It was a ploy. Can I have my wand back now?" I asked.

He looked at me suspiciously for a bit, muttered something and tossed it back to me.

"What did you just to do it?" That could have just damaged the new plan.

"I'm not an idiot. Avada Kedavra takes a great deal of magic. I placed a limit on the magic that could be used with it."

"Stupid mistake." I raised the wand again, but this time I pointed it towards the sky and shot red sparks up.

"There. Every Death Eater within three kilometers just saw that. They'll come and drag me off to your great Lord," I said with disgust. "And they'll torture me to near death. They'll do horrible things to me. Is that really what you want?"

I could tell my plan was slowly being worked out in his head. I guess this is where my brains finally came in handy. I could figure out how to get myself killed before Malfoy could work it all out. What a good use for my gift.

"You stupid, stupid girl."

"Yes, Malfoy, quite stupid. I know. So you think you can get on with it?"

"How can you be so calm about this? You really want me to kill you and it's not even phasing you."

"Because, all of this," I said as I gestured towards all the bodies, "hasn't sunk in yet. I don't miss them. It hasn't gotten through. But, it's going to and soon. And it will break me. I know it will. I'm numb right now. But that's because I can't accept. And it's going to slam me all and once. Is that what you want? To see me break?"

I was beginning to weaken him.

"Her-Granger, even if thought it was the best thing to do, I couldn't. You have to have a lot of hate behind Avada Kedavra."

"So, what's the problem?" I asked.

"I don't hate you."

"Yeah, but you don't have to hate me. You just have to hate."

"We just won the bloody war. I'm sorry I can't do it."

Over the horizon I could make out several black shapes coming towards us. They were walking it seemed, apparating must have been out of the question. For what reason I didn't know. I estimated that I had about ten minutes to convince him.

"They're coming."

His eyes followed finger as I pointed towards the death eaters. He was doing his own math, I could tell.

"I don't hate you," he repeated.

"I know." I squeezed my eyes shut and continued speaking. "But you sure were mad when Harry knew enough not to befriend you in first year. He embarrassed you in front of the whole class didn't he?"

"Don't start with that."

"And he got on the Quidditch team before you even had a chance. All thanks to you. Never would have been able to beat you in every single game if you hadn't been so mean to Neville. The only person you never once defeated. He was always better than you at Quidditch."

I had opened my eyes and I saw him visibly trying to relax and keep his composure.

"How about when we went into the forest that year? You were so weak. Afraid of your own great Lord. We had quite a laugh about that later. Running off like a little girl. What about fourth year when Moody turned you into a ferret. Oh that was priceless. We called you ferret face for weeks." I forced myself to laugh, hoping he couldn't tell it was fake.

His hand was pulled into a fist now. I knew I had been right to insult his pride. It was the one weakness I knew of.

"Then there was our fifth year when six 15-year-olds outsmarted all of your precious death eaters. And for the icing on the cake we got your father thrown in Azkaban. Yes, you were quite mad at us then."

"Granger, stop," he said in a strangled voice.

Lose it, lose it I repeated over and over as a mantra.

"I remember when Pansy broke up with you right in the middle of Potions. Got you detention for, what was it, a month? Oh no, two months. Never did think Pansy would leave you, huh? I believe that was the same night you walked in on me and Ron snogging. Tried to beat him up, you did. Not very successful. Were you jealous Malfoy? Why was that? Have a bit of a crush on me? All that time together in the Head Common Room get to be too much."

Please don't answer that. I don't want to know.

A vein in his neck was throbbed. Bit by bit he was coming apart. That last comment really got him. Oh Merlin, it should have never come to this.

"And you never knew Snape was a spy did you? Always was two steps ahead of you. You were never quite as clever as he was. He was a good role model for you. He's dead you know. His connection disappeared over an hour ago. They killed him. Hell, you were probably there."

I took a quick glance and say that I was down to five minutes, tops. I was making good progress though. I suppose they could kill me right now, but I wanted to die on my own terms.

Malfoy started to walk away. It just caused me to start yelling.

"Don't forget about when someone killed your father. You want to know who it was? It was McGonagall. He was sneaking up on Arthur Weasley. Getting ready to have the final showdown. Didn't even get the chance. She killed him right quick. No second thoughts. It was a happy day for the Order. We had a bit of a celebration that night."

He was distancing himself so I followed his path slowly.

"Here's the best one Malfoy. You told me you cared for Pansy just last month. Well guess what? She came back. And she was looking for you. And you want to know what _I _did? I killed her. She's laying right over there next to Finch-Fletchly. And guess what Malfoy. He's a mudblood too. And look, there blood is exactly the same. That's what you fought this whole bloody war for. The same blood. But it doesn't matter 'cause you won. And now you have to finish it Malfoy. I have nothing left!"

I think it was all the pain I knew I was inflicting on him that caused me to begin feeling the loss of life around me. And just like I told him it would, it began to hit me like a wave. Sobs began to wrack my body. And when he heard me crying he spun around. I knew in that brief second I had finally won. Just seconds too late from being able to avoid the pain. But at least now it wouldn't be a constant pain.

"I'm so sorry that it came to this," he yelled at me. "AVADA KEDAVRA."

Because he had been walking away from I was able to see the green light rushing towards me and had time to whisper, "Thank you, Draco," before it hit me.


End file.
